


learning to belong

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canon Compliant, Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Missing Scene, POV Character of Color, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5890657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Late night conversations between Alex and Darwin -- the relationship we didn't get to see develop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	learning to belong

**Author's Note:**

> written for the tumblr prompt: “when we’re there we’ll belong / ‘cause the earth don’t give a damn if you’re lost” for alex/darwin.

They’ve never belonged anywhere.None of them, really — Armando knows that look in everyone’s eyes.Even Raven, who can slip into anyone’s skin: she doesn’t _belong_ in any of them.

Armando sees it most in Angel, of course, and, maybe a little surprisingly, he sees it in Alex.

Alex thinks he’s dangerous, fire in his belly like nothing any of them have ever seen before, uncontrollable and wild.By contrast, Alex is rigid, distant, a little bit vicious.Restrained in every way and trying to seem aloof.

Pretty lost boy who has seen too much, probably.Because that’s the way of the world.

Armando’s not sure why Alex is so skittish, but he can imagine.He can look at that pretty face, the way he skids away from touching the rest of the group, his sense of isolation, and there’s a few possibilities as to why, beyond his gift.

But then, he lets Armando touch him, and _that’s_ a revelation.

It’s nothing huge, just a thoughtless nudge to his shoulder that Alex doesn’t flinch away from.Armando almost doesn’t notice it.But he _does,_ and soon, it’s hard to keep away.

Alex doesn’t reach out to touch _him_ as much, but there’s a connection that neither of them has to anyone else.It’s a pure and simple gravity.

Nothing else about it is simple, but it’s _clear._ Armando wants to make it explicit, but he’s a little scared of how clear it is, how much they could risk by pursuing this to the end.He might be immortal.He might be unkillable.He doesn’t know for sure, but nothing’s ever killed him that should have. 

But Alex?Alex doesn’t have that gift.Risking this is risking Alex, and Armando’s not sure he’s down to do that just yet.

Not until he knows for sure that this is worth that risk.

One night, Alex is stretched across one of the couches in the compound’s rec room, supine and lovely — Armando wants to touch him.

So he does, sitting down on the floor next to Alex, his hand skimming up Alex’s hip as he turns and sits down.

“Tired?” he asks.

“Nah,” Alex murmurs back.“It’s not that late.”

“The others have all gone to bed,” Armando points out.“The whole place is quiet, huh?”

Alex nods.“’s nice.”

“Is it?”Armando misses the city.Virginia’s nice and all, but he’s got New York bred into his bones.“Where’re you from?”

“Nebraska, mostly.”Alex looks down at him.“Why’d ya ask?”

Armando shrugs.“Seemed like the thing to do.”

“What about you?”

“New York.Harlem and the Village, mostly.”Hopefully that’ll mean something to Alex, if this is what Armando kind of hopes it could be.

“Huh.I’ve lived in the Village.”

And there it is.It _could_ be what he wants, given the twinge in Alex’s voice.

“Funny we never ran into each other.”

“Yeah.Funny.”

Armando shifts a little, the back of his neck on Alex’s thigh — over-familiar, sure, but it’s a risk he’s going to take.A risk he _wants_ to take. 

Alex inhales, but doesn’t shift away.Armando looks up at him through his eyelashes.

“So we’ve got the city in common,” he says, conversational.No reason to rush this.Let gravity do the work for them.“I wonder what else.”

“Dunno.Gonna have to find out, huh?If we’re gonna be a team.”

“Hotshot, I’m pretty sure we already are.”

* * *

 

The world isn’t a safe place for people like them.It’s something that Armando has known since he was a kid, since he saw the fear and hatred in his mother’s eyes for the first time.Of course, the world isn’t safe for a man like him for a million reasons, but this reason, this he has in common with the team, this ragtag group.

He has something else in common with Alex, though they haven’t said it flat yet, because it’s dangerous to say.Alex is scared of it, scared of what it could mean.Armando doesn’t say it either, because he doesn’t want to scare him off with it.

Tonight, it’s like the last night, the two of them alone.This time it’s Armando stretched out on the couch.Alex has his head tipped back on Armando’s belly, arms wrapped loosely around his knees.

They haven’t talked — haven’t needed to.The gravity that pulls them together sometimes seems to make words unneccessary, when all Armando has to do is slide his hand over some part of Alex, and Alex just _knows_.

Presently, Alex breaks the silence.

“I was in prison.”

That…doesn’t come as a shock.There’s a look of it, that Armando’s seen in too many people’s eyes over the years, and it’s there in Alex’s.

“Okay.”

“Solitary.Safer that way.”

Darwin looks over at him, side of his face against Alex’s stomach now.Alex is looking up at the ceiling, his mouth pulled tight.

“For them?”

“Yeah.”Alex sighs.“Don’t know why you hang around.”

Armando shrugs a little, smiles.“In case you didn’t notice, I’m a little sturdier than most people.”

“Yeah, I know that.Still…”

“I think we got some things in common, too,” Armando adds, and his hand comes up, pats Alex’s thigh absently over his shoulder.“So.”

Alex tenses, just a tiny bit.“Oh yeah?”

“Mhmm.”

Alex relaxes under his hand, and they’re quiet from there on out.

* * *

It comes to a head on a hot night in late June.  The others are still there, Raven and Hank awkward next to each other and Angel raising her eyebrows at Darwin about _that_ budding romance.  Sean’s sprawled out in his favorite chair, and Alex is sprawled out on the couch.  Armando had gone to get more sodas from one of the agents stationed here — she likes him, in a nervous sort of way, a tiny blonde slip of a girl who must be all muscle. 

He’d feel a little bad about asking her for things if it seemed like she thought it would go anywhere.But it doesn’t, and she doesn’t seem like she expects it, so he takes three boxes of soda bottles and brings them back to the rec room.

When he gets back, Alex is taking up most of the couch.Armando rolls his eyes, sets the soda on the coffee table, and sits down anyway, toward Alex’s head.

Alex’s head lands on his thigh, an accusatory look on his face. 

“Look, hotshot, if you’re gonna take up the whole couch, I gotta make my own space.”

Alex lets out a huffy little sigh, but his head stays in Armando’s lap.It’s comfortable, relaxed — the gravity stronger and stronger the closer they get.

Raven starts laughing, drawing both of their attention.

“So, when’s the wedding?” she teases, and Alex turns red. 

Armando has a cool response for that one; his hand lands in Alex’s hair and he smirks.“Well, I mean, there’s laws we gotta get rid of first.”

“Darwin,” Alex whines a little bit, embarrassed. 

They’re not together, but acting like they are, Armando realizes. 

Well.Wouldja look at that?

* * *

As soon as the others are finally gone, it’s around 3 in the morning.  Alex sits up when they are, and he’s still pink.

“What was that?” he asks, looking embarrassed as before.

“She was just teasing.”Armando smirks a little.“Sweetheart.”

“Shut _up_ ,” Alex hisses, like the world can hear them.“Don’t — that’s — you don’t want that.Of course you don’t.”

Armando cocks his head to the side.“Why’d you say that?"

“Because — because — why _would_ you?”

And Armando _has_ to kiss him, because Alex Summers has never been so wrong in his entire life.He shifts toward him, pulls him in.

When their lips meet, it’s not like the world shifts on its axis or anything.It’s as easy as breathing.

Easy as breathing, and that’s more than enough.

Alex pulls away.“You — you _want_ me?”

“Damn right I do.”

Alex bites his lip.“You sure?”

“I am.”

And then Alex kisses him, and _that_ , that feels like belonging. 

The world outside these walls might hate them for this.The Earth doesn’t change just because two boys are lip-locked in a CIA compound.

But hey, maybe this is a start.


End file.
